I Come To You In Peaces So You Can Make Me Whole
by samuraichikx
Summary: Jack thought he had it all figured out.


Fandom:30 Rock

Pairings: Jack/Avery, Jack/Liz

Rating: PG-13 for adult themes

Spoilers: Mostly Season 4

For:ham_napkin: first kiss, I didn't think that would happen, "It started out as a joke, but it's becoming real..." (Episode 4.10)

Disclaimer: For fun, not profit. Characters are Tina Fey's

A/N: I blame the sappiness on both my sleep-deprived induced high and my need for sappy romance fics. I'm currently working on a fic that's kind of bumming me out, so I wrote this to cheer me up. I hope you enjoy! Title inspired by the song Pieces by Red

Jack thought he had it all figured out. Thought he had finally found the right woman the night he met Avery. She was a woman on par with his own wits. She was, in essence, Sean Hannity in a skirt.

Not that he had any strange bromance going on with Sean Hannity. It's a metaphor, damn it.

He had proposed the morning of their two month anniversary, while she lay in his bed. He didn't think it too early. He wasn't getting any older and she certainly didn't seem like the type to be teased with (amazing) sex and never settling down. He had done the same thing with Elisa, and the only reason that hadn't worked out was because she had made a....mistake... with her previous marriage.

She had said yes, ecstatically, and he was done, finally done with living alone. His first instinct is to text Liz to brag, to which she responds with a "Congrats!!!" complete with multiple exclamation points.

He certainly hadn't expected what had followed.

After taking a shower he walked back into his bedroom in his dress pants, buttoning up his shirt with a big grin on his face. She stood there by his bed, fully clothed and in the midst of gathering the rest of her things that had accumulating around his apartment the last couple of months. The ring, which he had happily slid onto her finger not twenty minutes before lay sparkling dully on the beside table.

"May I ask what's going on?"

Avery looks up from her bag, looking flustered. She sighs, without hesitation, "Look Jack...I can't do this-"

He stands there, stunned. He honestly never thought this would happen. She continues.

" I mean, you're a great guy and all, but I just can't do this. I just got to thinking, I'll show up to work with that ring, people will start asking questions. Then it will be all over the news, in newspapers. If don't want to commit to something like that."

"What? No!" he says, trying to hold back the lump in his throat. "Something like this would be great for you. I thought this was something you would like. This could be good publicity for both our careers." She rolls her eyes, continues packing. "I mean, I don't mean it like that. I care about you, obviously-"

"It's not just that, Jack."

He stares, awaiting an answer. She picks up her bag from the edge of the bed and retrieves the ring from the nightstand, walking up to him.

"Ever since we met I've always viewed you as the guy that you have a hot one-night-stand with and forget about the next day. I've been waiting too long for this to end, just enjoying it as it goes. I just got sucked up in the moment when you asked me. Someday, I do want to settle down. But I don't think it'll be with you. I'm sorry"

He breaks her gaze, looking off into the distance with misty eyes, not even noticing her whispering a small 'good bye' as she walks out the door.

He barely even takes notice of the fact that he fully clothes himself, walks out the door, gets into his car and is driven to work. He walks through the door of 30 Rock without so much as a second thought. His feet knew where to take him, they knew he could not afford to sulk the entire day. There was work to be done, business to conduct, backward overflow to synergize.

He takes the elevator to the 52nd floor, making a note to briefly lift his mood in front of Jonathan. If the kid saw that another woman had made him this utterly depressed, then murder would be committed. He didn't have time to look for another assistant if his was put on murder trial.

The remainder of the day he sets to work, doing his best to avoid any contact with any member of the TGS staff, particularly Lemon. He couldn't face her, not now, he had already told her about his engagement. To have it be called off so soon was just...embarrassing, to say the least.

It wasn't hard, as all he had to do was send an email out from his office. Or send Jonathan down to the stage to spread news about the desire for product integration sketches. Needless to say, after awhile he became increasingly bored. As much as he had always protested that TGS had taken up 90% of his time, he had grown to enjoy the moments he shared with Liz. Elizabeth Lemon, his employee come mentee had ultimately become one of the best friends he ever had.

He finds it a bit odd that Liz hasn't come into his office at all yet, he hadn't yet set a 'No Visitors Policy'. He has to stop himself. These thoughts are too tempting. This is his reputation with his best friend at stake.

***

Much later in the evening, he deems it safe enough to near the TGS stage. No one would be asking questions, they were busy with dress rehearsal.

Standing outside of makeup with a half-empty beer bottle. He leans against the wall staring off into the distance, barely registering the noise in the background as dress rehearsal. He's just too deep in thought, contemplating whether or not he really put too much of his life into work. He was almost fifty-one years old. Most men his age already had 15-year marriages and teenagers entering high school, and he can't even get an engagement to last.

He barely responds when Tracy tries to catch his attention, mostly because he can't recognize him.

"Hey Jackie D! Where you been all day?"

It takes a swig of beer and few lazy blinks before Jack responds. "Thinking, Tray." He stares at Tracy, garbed in a skewed-looking cupid costume. The writers' new "Gangsta Cupid" sketch, he presumed.

"Why the long face Jack? You look sadder than ugly stripper at a Vegas night club." asks Tracy as he slings the graffitied bow across his back.

"Can I ask you a question, Tray?"

"Of course! You know I always got your back!"

The resonance of that phrase from nearly two years ago echoes in his mind, when Liz said it to him. He pushes the thought aside."How do you and Angie make it work? How did you know she was 'the one'." he emphasizes with air quotations.

"Me and Angie? Well you know that I know how to work that vajay-"

"Besides that Tracy."

Tracy walks up to Jack, putting his hand on his shoulder. It is perhaps the most sincere moment he has ever had with Tracy, the most sane. It's strange, and maybe it could be the beer, or maybe it could be the shock that for once in his life, he feels completely lost.

"It's simple Jack, I married my best friend." Tracy says, though doesn't registers Jack's realization before he races off to finish dress rehearsal "I gotta go Jack, we'll finish this conversation later. I'll make it up to you though, take you for a ride in the batmobile!"

Jack stares after Tracy, eyes wide. He throws away the bottle in the nearest trash can and jogs toward the stage, toward dress rehearsal, where Liz should be.

It's only Pete he finds standing at the podium "Lemon, where's Lemon?".

Pete turns around in what would be a look to kill if it was anyone else. "Last I saw her she was in her office. Finishing up rewrites."

He doesn't even finish the sentence before Jack takes off, heading straight for the sixth floor.

***

He finds her in her office alright, though concern washes over his face when instead of rapid typing he hears her sniffle. Jack leans against the door frame, waiting for her to register that he was there. It takes her a good few seconds, but eventually she lifts her head from looking down at a script to brush her banks from in front of her face. Liz looks up at him with a surprised look, red-faced and sniffly.

"Jack, what are you doing here?"

"I can't check up on you for completely arbitrary reasons, Lemon? And may I ask why you're crying?"

" I'm not crying. The writers snuck extremely hot jalepeño sauce in my dinner. And I guess not. But aren't you supposed to be out erm...'celebrating' with Avery?"

He nonchalantly finds his way to the edge of her desk, then says "It's...not going to happen between us." Addressing her confused look, "She left me, Lemon."

"Oh my God, are you okay?"

"Originally, no. I wasn't. I spend most of the day secluded in my office." Liz raises her eyebrows in a 'really, Jack Donaghy sulks?' look. "That is until, I was given some very good advice by a one Tracy Jordan."

"Really?"

"Yes, I have to admit. We have to give him a lot more credit where it's due."

"You're losing me, Jack."

"All these years I thought I had it figured out what I really wanted out of life. I thought I knew how to make it all work. I've been wrong, though. I finally have been given the answer."

Liz stands up from her chair and walks over to where he's standing, looking into his eyes and feeling his forehead. "Are you sure you're okay?"

He doesn't answer, but rather takes her hand and takes it in his. With his free hand he caresses the side of her face with her thumb. She doesn't object, but gives him a questioning look.

"All these years that I've known you I've always dated a carousel of women I couldn't care less about. Somewhere along the line I felt that in those whirlwind romances I would find 'the one'. Until now, though, it hadn't occurred to me that the most successful marriages are those in which your partner is also your best friend." her gaze shifts from massively confused to complacent understanding. "Someone who will stick by you, put up with your nonsense, do you understand what I'm saying, Lemon?" **

"I'm not marrying you, Jack." she says, shifting back to her annoyed face, "I thought the whole 'I'm in love with Liz Lemon' was just some joke."

He smiles, both at now realizing how wrong he was to that memory of Liz embarrassing herself at the after party dancing to who-knows- what. He moves his hand from her cheek to her chin, pulling her closer. "Well it's becoming real," he rasps before pulling her into a soft kiss.

It's strange, kissing your best friend, but deep in his mind he knows, he just knows that there is a connection, that something was there. That if they can move past the initial awkwardness that their passions will collide so perfectly it will be almost like magic.

They break apart from the first, short, small kiss almost laughing. He can see it in her eyes though, and he's probably projecting it as well: they both want this to happen.

"Well...that was um.."

"Would you like to try it again?"

"Yeah..yeah." she grabs his face and pulls him down for a longer, more passionate kiss.

Sometime during kiss number three or four (who's counting, right?) they really get the hang of it. Jack's hands are on her back, and her arms are wrapped around his neck as their lips crash together again. The room is almost spinning; this feels so good, so right.

Jack breaks the kiss, moving his hands to cup her face. They touch their foreheads together eyes only half open as they take in the other's gaze.

"Just to be clear," Jack says "I wasn't proposing marriage. I was simply going to ask you if you would like to have dinner with me."

"Just the two of us?"

"Yes, and I assure you it's for entirely personal reasons."

She smiles, accepting the dinner invitation with a small nod and another kiss.

Jack truly thinks he now has it all figured out.

END

** I want to make it perfectly clear that I know nothing about marriage. =) Have a nice day!


End file.
